“All for a misdemeanor”: Exploring the deadly consequences of pursuit policy variation in fatal police chases across the United States

• In Event: Police Violence 10 Years After Ferguson: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go Next?

Abstract

Civilian deaths from police vehicle pursuits remain a seldom-discussed aspect of police violence, despite their ability to instantaneously claim the lives of vehicle passengers, pedestrian bystanders, other drivers, and officers themselves. Though police pursuits are down from the staggering rates of the 1960s and 70s, vague policies and an extremely high threshold for officer liability – their actions must be “conscience-shocking” to show intent – have granted officers implicit permission to initiate reckless pursuits. In the present research, we use the Campaign Zero Mapping Police Violence public database to collect and analyze news-reported fatalities caused by officers behind the wheel, either through a tactical intervention that resulted in a crash or by hitting the victim directly with a police vehicle. We also incorporate data from the SF Chronicle’s newly generated Police Chases database, whose definition of a ‘victim’ includes bystanders in other vehicles that were hit or crashed during a pursuit, despite not being pursued themselves. Lastly, using New York City as a case study, we examine the impact of a leadership change in the New York Police Department (NYPD) that led to a 600% increase in police chases in under a year, despite no change to policy.

Authors

• Shawn E. Fagan, Campaign Zero

• Ash Johnson, Harvard University

• Kelly Davis, Campaign Zero

• Andrew D. Zaharia, Campaign Zero

• Abdul Nasser Rad, Campaign Zero